Duplicity

Duplicity

39% Liked It
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Duplicity

Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson, Paul Giamatti

CIA officer Claire Stenwick and MI6 agent Ray Koval have left the world of government intelligence to cash in on the highly profitable cold war raging between two rival multinational corporations. The...( read more  read more... )ir mission? Secure the formula for a product that will bring a fortune to the company that patents it first. For their employers--industry titan Howard Tully and buccaneer CEO Dick Garsik--nothing is out of bounds. But as the stakes rise, the mystery deepens and the tactics get dirtier, the trickiest secret for Claire and Ray is their growing attraction. And as they each try to stay one double-cross ahead, two career loners find their schemes endangered by the only thing they can't cheat their way out of: love.

Id: 11059309

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Recent Reviews


  • December 11, 2009
    Duplicity is a relatively clever movie. It moves at a brisk pace, and never allows the audience to become too comfortable with the knowledge that they know what's going on.

    Clive Owen and Julia Roberts make a good pair, and most of the charm of the movie comes from their intera...( read more)ctions. Sure, the constant tests that they gave one another started to become very predictable, but I guess their actions made sense within the context of the story. Think of Duplicity as a light spy thriller, mixed with a light romantic comedy, and you won't be too far off the mark.
  • November 12, 2009
    I'm not sure Duplicity entirely works, but I enjoyed watching it unfold. Tony Gilroy is Hollywood's enfant terrible in terms of the spy thriller; the man knows his way around a corporate espionage tale, creating contemporary and refreshing tales of capitalist politics and human g...( read more)reed. A lot of people have decried this as confusing, but it isn't really, no more so than Michael Clayton was. There will probably be times where you feel you're behind the plot, but the movie always allows you to catch up. It's complex, but not obfuscated. To hear an elaborate plot automatically labeled as a negative in a movie is really discouraging, to say the least, and Duplicity seems to have fallen unfortunately hard to this unmerited groupthink.

    For what they are meant to be, the characters are great; Ray and Claire are a pair of barely human sociopaths endlessly one-upping each other, and though they don't come across as remotely likable, they really aren't supposed to be. The two are not painted as all-out demons, but like many of Gilroy's richly textured characters, we see them on an axis of opportunism/altruism versus good/evil. The ending of the movie reinforces how we're meant to feel about them perfectly. I'm not sure I would have gone the same route in casting - Julia Roberts and Clive Owen could do these roles in their sleep, and Owen is about as interested as that might suggest - but the actors portray them adeptly, with all the unctuous charm of a completely hollow couple of spies. Tom Wilkinson does fine in about five minutes of screentime. Paul Giamatti is surprisingly over-the-top, chewing the scenery in a way we've never seen from him before (this is not a compliment). But anyway, the casualty of having characters that are so difficult to connect to is that the romantic link doesn't always convince. I thought the movie was far, far stronger as a spy thriller than as a Owen-Roberts fuckfest, and even though the subplot provided some interesting parallels with the constant deception present in the Equikrom storyline, it just never really seems to cohere. Still, Duplicity's underrated, mismarketed to people who are frankly not smart enough to understand it or not interested enough to try, and an adequate piece of adult entertainment that stands on nearly-equal ground with Michael Clayton.
  • October 12, 2009
    It has been a while since I have seen a movie that attempts to pull off something as complicated as "Duplicity." While the performances were excellent and the story very intriguing the complexities make the movie difficult to stay involved with the characters at times and it end...( read more)s up stumbling over itself now and again.
    Two persons brilliant in the ways of espionage seek to find the perfect game to bring the money home while they also play games with one another and search for a heart in the midst of the chaos brought about by corporate 'spy vs. spy' and subterfuge..
    The banter between Owens and Roberts is fantastic and Giamatti's performance was off the charts brilliant. You could see this movie for these reasons alone.
    The concept is a great one and again I must stress that it has been some time since I have seen a movie try to deliver a tale that weaves in this fashion. It can come off as convoluted, but I would ask the viewer to stick with it.
    All in all, this movie delivers the goods in a package that can sometimes be difficult to translate. If you can follow it the payout is actually quite good.
    See it when you can.
  • October 2, 2009
    Convoluted spy thriller about two operatives in a clandestine love affair working for a CEO trying to outdo his rival. Are they lying to each other? Are they telling the truth? The art of the con can be a dizzying delight. Unfortunately the labyrinthine layers of deception pr...( read more)esented here become a rather headache inducing bore. It's so confusing, after a while, it's difficult to care. We have attractive leads, some light banter and it's all very stylishly filmed, but in the end it all adds up to very little. Paul Giamatti entertainingly chews the scenery as the CEO of Equikrom.
  • September 24, 2009
    It's Mr. and Mrs. Smith meets Ocean's Eleven with sparks of Thomas Crown Affair. It's an intelligent, sexy, witty, charming and a wickedly entertaining movie. A juicy caper that snaps and sparks with smarts, suspense, humor and romance that just make this flick more fun to watch....( read more) It's well-crafted, brilliant, sophisticated and tremendouse. Clive Owen and Julia Roberts are excellent, they have electric and sizzeling chemistry together thats just a joy to watch. Tom Wilkonson and Paul Giamatti are brilliant. A hilarious and exhilerating film. Director, Tony Gilroy crafts another slick, sophisticated and very entertaining film for adults. A dazzeling well-crafted, sharply well-written and wonderfully performend film. A teriffic movie. A total blast of enjoyment from start to finish. A great romantic comedy with magnificent twist and turns. A fantastic caper thats packed with laughs, excitement, stars and style. As good and as enjoyable as movies get.
  • January 2, 2010
    What a fun, intelligent, well-writtent with bright performances blockbuster! Nothing exceptional, but surely it's got us entertained. the direction is well done too, same thing for the great soundtrack by Newton Howard.
  • January 1, 2010
    Not as smart as it thinks it is
  • December 31, 2009
    Once you think you know what's going on in "Duplicity" the plot thickens and catches you by surprise. The switching back and forth between past and present can be slightly irritating but the film is put together very stylishly and the actors have good chemistry. The ending is del...( read more)ightful.
  • December 30, 2009
    I wasn't impressed by Gilroy's first feature "Michael Clayton". And now, "Duplicity" is the proof that he can't make a interesting movie. Even with great acting and good cinematography, this movie was a bore. The script seemed unnecessarily confusing, and that back and forth thin...( read more)g is just to disguise that he had no good ideas. It's a shame to see Julia Roberts, Clive Owen, Tom Wilkinson and Paul Giamatti wasting their time on such a dull movie.
  • December 26, 2009
    wiv Mum @ Times square

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